Fly me to the moon

The princess left the castle. She looked one last time to the stone towers she had called home for the past twenty years. There laid all her hopes of a future, a future with a prince who would rescue her and take her to his kingdom, a future where he would break her curse. Now, it was all in the past, nothing but fantasies of a young girl who dreamed too much. She turned her back to the Sky-Piercing Castle, confident and resolute. Still, a small tear ran down her cheek as she crossed the bridge over the lava pit and entered the woods.

The Red Dragon found her not much time after she had set camp near a clearing. He had a long and thin body, full of scales that shone in the sunlight. From a distance, he looked red like blood, but when he came near she noticed his skin and eyes were like a kaleidoscope, changing colors as he moved divinely in the air. All the time she spent on the castle she had only seen him from afar, an ominous threat to her life and her future prince. Now, all her fear had subsided and given place to pure fascination and curiosity. For twenty years she had seen that creature as nothing more than a monster, now she realized what a fool she had been.

“You left.” He said. His voice was like the sound of a waterfall, loud and deep.

“I did.” The princess answered. “Will you kill me?”

The dragon swirled in the air, and landed near her, cautious not to hurt her with his long tail. She waited, unmovable, as the creature observed her and studied her face. 

“I will not kill you, princess, but surely someone will kill me.” He answered.

“Why would you be killed? You did nothing wrong.”

If a dragon could laugh, she was sure he would be laughing at that moment. Dark smoke came out of his nostrils, and he emitted a strange sound, one that reminded her of whirlwind and howls. The earth seemed to resonate with him, vibrating and singing together in a song of birds, trees, and leaves. Even the clouds were gone from the sky.

“My job is to keep you in the tower until a prince comes.” He said. “I have more than two hundred years of experience in the field, almost ten princesses were under my care. I am afraid you have no choice, and your parents certainly will guarantee that. ”

“My parents would never be able to hurt you, though they could punish me as they often did.” The princess said, searching for any remains of hope. “You are strong, people usually fear your kind, no wonder you were put on guard. And this is my choice, you have not failed me or them. If there’s someone who failed me, it was the ones that put me in that tower and the prince who never came.”

“It may be true...” The dragon cocked his head. “But I have an obligation, thus I need to take you back. In dragon years, I am very young, and I tend to be merciful towards people. I do not appreciate fights or skirmishes, at least I try avoiding them as much as I can.”

Her heart sunk and her eyes caught a glimpse of the towers on the horizon, pointed like needles, dark and cold. Many years she had waited patiently, arranged over and over again the furniture, brushed her hair every night in case her prince would come. The priests had said she had to mutter a prayer under the full moon, her mother had advised her to wear her best dress and her father had promised her someday she would be beautiful. But all her wait resulted in despair, fear, and abandonment.

They said the towers were like a thunderstorm — noisy, scary but transient. Sure, the freezing chambers were frightening, and the noises were enough to scare a grown man, but the same way the storms ended when people least expected, the time she would spend in the tower would end too. Oh… But what did they know of towers and dragons beyond what the books and bards told? She thought reality was far more similar to a never-ending fall into a dark pit.

“I realize, dragon... That I prefer to be dead than to go back.” She said, feeling an ache in her chest. “Would you kill me, then?”

The Red Dragon hesitated, at least, that was what she thought. The dragons in the books would not flinch before ripping her apart, burning her body with their living fire. But this dragon, her dragon, seemed almost uncertain.

“I would not like to kill you.” He said. “You are so young... Human lives are too short and you have not lived enough to wish for death.”

“Then what do you propose?” She asked, hugging her knees. “I will not go back.”

“And where are you headed to, if I may ask?” The dragon came closer.

The princess got up and searched for her bag. From inside an old book with yellow pages and a leathery cover, she took out a map. She unfolded it and laid it on the ground, close to the dragon’s face. He analyzed it carefully, and she leaned closer.

“We are here, see? The Pit of Hell and the Sky-Piercing Castle.” The princess pointed to an X marked with red ink.

“Proceed.”

“I want to find the Sunflower Farms, you see these spots around here? I think, and this is just a supposition, that it is northeast from our location.” She explained, all her nights of planning and drawing coming back at once. “They say the farms can lead you to another world, a portal to a new reality... There is magic there, real magic, pure and without all the restrictions we have.”

“But where did this idea come from? And how long will this journey be? You do not seem fit for a long walk, my princess.”

She was not, but if there was one trait of which she prided herself of was her stubbornness, the blind willpower that filled her veins.

“This book belonged to one of the princesses who lived here in the past. I don’t know what happened to her, but she registered in it all her ideas, every adventure she would go if she was free. Now, I’ve been here longer than expected and I had many lonely nights to prepare myself. If the journey is too long, so be it, I’ll find a way around every obstacle.” She said, a smile forming on her face.

“I see... There is nothing I can do to stop you, then.” The dragon spoke calmly.

“I fear there’s not.” 

“And you say these Sunflower Farms are magical? Do they exist?”

“I need to go to find out.” She answered. “There’s not much time left for me, anyway.”

“Would you care if I joined you? If we did go to another dimension, I do not think a contract would still bound me.”

The princess felt a rush of excitement and surprise, and she touched the dragon’s paw, feeling the cold scales beneath her fingers. There was an agreement of sorts between them, the dragon’s shining yellow eyes fixed on her dark ones, a friendship beginning in silence.

“I would love to.” She said. “Will you carry me on your back?”

“Only if flying does not scare you, in which case I advise you to hold fast. Things tend to get a little turbulent during flights, believe me.”

“I’m not scared. Are you scared of me?” 

“Why would I be?” He asked. “Once you got as many scales as I have, no creature can fright you anymore, not even a princess and her mad plans. If there is one thing I fear, it is humans, but I do not think you will be one for long.”

She smiled, wrapped her few belongings, and prepared to leave. In the sunlight, her scales shone like silver and gold, making her dark skin glow. The princess could already feel her teeth growing, her vision sharpening, her nails changing to claws. The change had begun a year earlier, right after she turned twenty. Soon she would be a dragon too, as the curse approached its later stages.

“Do you happen to have a name, a real one?” She asked as she jumped on the dragon’s neck.

“I did, in the past. I think it was... Sardan. I may or may not have been cursed, but in the end, it does not matter. Could you tell me your name, princess?”

“Flora Trevainen.” She said. “But you can call me Neve, it’s the name I gave myself, more appropriate for someone with cold skin. When I become like you, I would like people to fear my name.”

Sardan, the dragon, straightened his body and opened his wings, his shadow engulfing the entire clearing and making birds fly away.

“Then, are you ready, Neve?” He asked.

Ready was too much of a strong word. Was she ready to leave behind any hope of becoming human again? No, not at all. Was she ready to disappoint her family and abandon life in the human realm? She doubted it. But Neve was sure of one thing, and one thing alone — she was more than ready to try it.

“I’m ready, Sardan.” She said.

The dragon nodded, and they left the ground, never to go back.